ROMANISM. 



6th. How does he regard the con- 

 secrations made in the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth centuries, when two 

 and sometimes three sets of pontiffs, 

 cardinals and councils claimed, at 

 the same time, to be the Church, 

 each consecrating bishops and 

 priests, and anathematizing the 

 others and all consecrated by them ? 

 And in what light does he regard 

 the acts of the Church at Rome, 

 and the consecrations made by it, 

 when seized upon, as it often was, 

 by as abandoned men as ever lived ? 



When a religion becomes estab- 

 lished and dominated by a priest- 

 hood, and especially when not sur- 

 rounded or mixed up with a con- 

 flicting one, people, as a body, born 

 and brought up under its influence, 

 so far as they have religion at all, 

 acquire and follow it as naturally as 

 they do the ways and observances, 

 the dialect and feelings of nation- 

 ality, of the country in which they 

 have been reared ; and it becomes 

 to them something like an iristinct 

 of nature. This applies to the 

 Pope no less than the most ignor- 

 ant peasant, in regard to what they 

 profess, let its nature and merits, 

 origin and development, or corrup- 

 tion, be what they may. Nor, for 

 that matter, could the Pope even 

 have acquired the art of feeding 

 himself as he does had he not been 

 taught it, or learned it by imitating 

 people around him ; to such an ex- 

 tent are we generally indebted to 

 our fellow-creatures, or society, for 

 the knowledge we possess, whatever 

 that knowledge may be. It is ques- 

 tionable if what Romanists hold in 

 regard to religion generally takes a 

 stronger hold on their belief, feel- 

 ings or observances, than the re- 

 ligions of Pagans -did on their vo- 

 taries, who never professed to fur- 

 nish real proofs or arguments to 

 support the origin or truth of what 

 they believed or taught. And the 

 same may be said in regard to the 

 heathen to-day. The absolute and 

 all-controlling despotism of the Ro- 



manist system fills, as it were, the 

 mind and almost the atmosphere 

 which the person breathes, leaving 

 little chance for him to think or act 

 otherwise than the community has 

 hitherto done ; assuming that he 

 has the capacity to do it, or has had 

 it so trained that it could act in 

 such a way, or had materials within 

 its reach on which, like the process 

 of digestion, it could operate; or 

 had education of any kind, or had 

 others near him to assist him, who 

 are much more apt to thwart him 

 in any desire he may entertain to 

 change his belief. If he doubts or 

 becomes indifferent to it, it is, as it 

 were, in secret, however he may, 

 from habit or fear, outwardly ob- 

 serve it ; and so he becomes an in- 

 fidel,unable to advance in his doubts, 

 with no glimmering in any tangible 

 shape of what is better than what 

 he was brought up to (and that is 

 very common among Romanists), so 

 that, at the very best, he sends for 

 a priest at his latter end ; for he has 

 inherited with his blood too great a 

 dislike for the " Black Protestants" 

 to apply to them for relief. Some- 

 times he lives and dies an atheist, 

 or a deist at the best. 



Strong as the feeling of submis- 

 sion is that is shown by a sincere lay 

 Romanist, whose religion constitutes 

 in no way his living, calling, or posi- 

 tion in society, it is infinitely more 

 so in the case of the priest, who is 

 absolutely bound to his position in 

 every way in which he can be held. 

 All priests are so brought up, that it 

 might be said of their education that 

 every part of it is directed to t'he 

 creation of a strong religious feeling, 

 in order that they might " breathe 

 religion," such as it is. According 

 to their system, there is little merit 

 in following their calling, for the 

 despotic discipline of their Church, 

 and the daily, almost hourly, calls 

 upon them to discharge its many 

 kinds of duties, urge them on, and 

 keep them continually moving round 

 in the vortex in which they were 



